The First Month of Our Mission

This is the start of our missionary blog.  Be patient as we figure out how to do these things.
The story begins as we said goodbye to our home in Bartlesville Oklahoma.  It is hard to leave a home we have loved and dear friends but we hope the sacrifices we are making will be a blessing to all of us.
We left the house in a hurry so we didn't take any farewell shots.  That is probably all right as January is a grey time of the year.  I would rather remember our house in the springtime.

We do appreciate all of the work that went into preparing to sell the house.  The boys came in for the Christmas holidays and didn't complain  as they spent time painting and fixing things up.  They got pretty good at painting, especially when mom couldn't decide on colors and they had to paint a room several times to satisfy her.
It was, however, a time for them to say farewells too.  Bartlesville has been a wonderful home for  our family.

We moved on to Texas.  I guess it is a return to Texas.  Our official residence is now at Jay's home in Euless in the Dallas Fort Worth  area.  We met our new ward, gave our third farewell talk and enjoyed visiting with our new Stake President as we were set apart.

We arrived in Provo and went to the MTC for Preach My Gospel training.  There were many new friends to meet and even a few old ones to run into.  The Church definitely makes the world a smaller place.
A startling surprise was the lack of snow in the mountains.  It has been the warmest February on record for Northern Utah.  Perhaps that was to help acclimate us for the tropics.  

Time in Provo meant time with Joey.
We were able to go to his favorite haunt on campus, The Bean Museum of Natural History

We met a new Indonesian friend, Fahri.  We had Fahri and our son Joey (the BYU students) join Ralph, Janet Zobell and ourselves (BYU alumni) for Mexican food and Creamery ice cream.  We have been focusing our eating to non Asian cuisines because we will enjoy Asian for the next two years.  

When we knew our visas were going to be delayed we moved up to Morgan to spend some time with Mel's parents.  Jay and Bonnie are in their eighties and are looking great.  We have enjoyed good food, working on family history together and quite a few rousing games of Rook

Aerin is living here in Morgan too and we enjoyed eating her special cheese cakes.

This is a beautiful valley and our extended visit allowed us to visit the newly remodeled Ogden temple several times.  Jay and Bonnie are ordinance workers there and think it is the most beautiful temple in the church.

As we became more and more discouraged about our visa delays we decided to take a trip.  So we hopped into the car and went to St. George and Las Vegas to see family.  
Of note was our visit to Janet Updike's.  We were encouraged by how well she is looking after her surgery and treatments.  She is such a resilient woman that is an inspiration for us.  The visit was a joy.  
We also spent time with Jimmy Jeffery who is doing photography for the church.  I think we have whetted his appetite to come to Indonesia and take some pictures there.  
Although we missed pics, we enjoyed Mel's sister, Jaeleen, and her family s company .  We have missed seeing them during our last few trips to UT so we had to make up for lost time.

We have particularly enjoyed spending time with Indonesians here in Utah.  

We visited Temple Square several times to meet with Inge Surya and some of her friends

We had a wonderful time together with our new friends as we watched the film "Meet the Mormons" at the Legacy Theater.  Enjoying the spirit of the Savior as we sat by the Christus statue in the visitor's center was especially sweet.

We ate at the Cannon Commons at BYU for their Taste of Indonesia Day.  Lots of good food and friends.  It is surprising that we can still fit in our clothes from all of the food we have eaten.  

We are so very thankful for the support and love that has been shown to us these last few weeks.

Terima Kasih.  

We send our love to all of our family and friends and get ready to board the plane for Indonesia. 

Elder and Sister Jeffery